Sandy Expected To Dampen Chicago Economy
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Hurricane Sandy may be pummeling the eastern seaboard undreds of miles away, but make no mistake: She could wallop your wallet, too.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov explains.
Markets to restaurants. The financial district to Chicago's shopping district. Experts say all could feel Sandy's wrath, depending on just how damaging the storm proves to be.
"The whole economy just gets sluggish," analyst John Challenger says. "We face the after-effects and the tangential effects of the storm to our businesses because of the weather, because of the reduced travel, because of the fact that we just can't do business with the East Coast."
For one, the now two-day closure of the New York Stock Exchange has prompted the Chicago Board and Options Exchange to close, too, in addition to halting many Chicago Mercantile Exchange group transactions.
"That's a major part of our economy," Challenger says.
Commerce is impacted, too. Adolfo Laurenti, Mesirow financial's deputy economist, says simply getting products to and from the eastern seaboard is a big concern. There could be temporary price increase, he says.
He said he doesn't believe Sandy will force the price of gasoline or energy up.
